Fred, I think you should take into account how IMSA was missing our third best player for the IMSA HEAT OF THE NIGHT tournament, and our second best player's pet kitten had recently run away, and so our performance was understandably less-than-optimal. When you figure that in, it seems we should be ranked at least 2 and possibly 6 places higher.

Dr. Noah Prince

Normal Community High School (2002)University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2004)University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2007)University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008)

Good top 25. Really no complaints; there are lots of really really good teams out there.

I'm interested to see what's going to happen with State College and Maggie Walker. They had good B Teams last year (MW more than SC) but it's anyone's guess as to how good they'll be now that they're on their own.

I don't think CR will break the top 25 this year but i hope to at least be considered in the top 50 at some point. I just don't know if we have the work ethic beyond our captain. We'll see; three summer practices have gone well (i haven't attended any) and a fourth is happening next week. It's interesting to note that i think our team will actually be better than we were in 09-10 (when we sniffed the voting polls and make some noise in the HSNCT playoffs), but unfortunately the rest of the country got much much better since then and we, well, didn't. We'll try to catch up but have a long way to go.

MattNC wrote:There should be separate rankings for teams that never actually had 4 player teams..like mine! >_> (or attended any events/placed well in any events that would warrant acknowledgement)

The top teams play down 1-2 players all the time, and they still are able to cope with it. Missing players is a part of the game.

On another note,

Dominator wrote:Fred, I think you should take into account how IMSA was missing our third best player for the IMSA HEAT OF THE NIGHT tournament, and our second best player's pet kitten had recently run away, and so our performance was understandably less-than-optimal. When you figure that in, it seems we should be ranked at least 2 and possibly 6 places higher.

You forgot that our 3.14th best player got 5.9 instead of the usual 6.0 hours of sleep the night before for one of the tournaments and thus resulted in said suboptimal performances.

MattNC wrote:There should be separate rankings for teams that never actually had 4 player teams..like mine! >_> (or attended any events/placed well in any events that would warrant acknowledgement)

The top teams play down 1-2 players all the time, and they still are able to cope with it. Missing players is a part of the game.

Yeah, but your talking the top players of the nation being formed on a 3 man team, well rounded players, so it doesn't matter too much as opposed to middle of the road Chapel Hill (no offense Matt).

Anyways, I think it would be extremely and unnecessarily meticulous to make a whole set of rankings just for 3 man teams. Teams play with all different sorts of handicaps all the time, (like we did, such as me being the only "real" A team player that actually played throughout the year).

Also, I think some team on the cusp of the top 25 higher/lower could end up being a legit force Nationally this year and knock off some higher teams and get a higher-than-expected placement at the HSNCT or PACE.

I'll say that DCC will probably continue to be good. They lose all their "starters" from last year, but they tend to reload. Seven Lakes is probably going to be really good as well. They return all of the players from the team that finished 14th at NSC.

Abid Haseeb Auburn High School '12Brown University '16Writer, HSAPQWriter, NAQT

I'll say that DCC will probably continue to be good. They lose all their "starters" from last year, but they tend to reload. Seven Lakes is probably going to be really good as well. They return all of the players from the team that finished 14th at NSC.

Two of Seven Lakes' guys who are returning did some good stuff at NASAT, or so I've heard.

I'm excited to see how my own team will do this year, seeing as we snuck in the bottom of the rankings last year. We're definitely not Top 25-worthy, but it would be cool to see who we all can match up to after returning an all-underclassman team that went 5-5 at HSNCT.

I'll say that DCC will probably continue to be good. They lose all their "starters" from last year, but they tend to reload. Seven Lakes is probably going to be really good as well. They return all of the players from the team that finished 14th at NSC.

Two of Seven Lakes' guys who are returning did some good stuff at NASAT, or so I've heard.

I'm excited to see how my own team will do this year, seeing as we snuck in the bottom of the rankings last year. We're definitely not Top 25-worthy, but it would be cool to see who we all can match up to after returning an all-underclassman team that went 5-5 at HSNCT.

Yep, Seven Lakes has a freshman who put up great numbers at NASAT despite being on a team with noted OK players Benji and Thomas (who were incidentally both All-Stars). Even without Jiawei, they'll be a team to really look out for next year.

Yeah, but your talking the top players of the nation being formed on a 3 man team, well rounded players, so it doesn't matter too much as opposed to middle of the road Chapel Hill (no offense Matt).

None taken, but of course I was thinking more in the sense of schools that lack not only team members but the skill to win with only 3 or less members, which is why you should've took note of my words in parentheses. They tell the whole story.

Matt DuchanChapel Hill High School '12University of Denver '16 Director of the 2013 Colorado State History Bowl

Fred, have you given any thought to having a locked and stickied thread where just the rankings go, and then have a separate thread for people to discuss and complain, that way when people want to see the newest rankings, they don't have to sift through the 34674647784236476237864738 pages of people complaining?

No Electricity Required wrote:So on the serious (but by no means too serious) side of this thread, I'm curious as to the reasoning behind DCC not making the top 25.

Yeah this. DCC is returning the top scorer at NAQT and PACE from their B team, the 2nd highest scorer from the A team at HSNCT, and the 4th highest scorer from the A team at HSNCT. Considering that the B team finished 8th at HSNCT and the A team finished 13th, I'm really confused as how they wouldn't be in top 25 consideration.

For my $.02 from what I saw at ACE, DCC looked considerably stronger than any other school, and I was at all 3 camps. IMHO, they're a top 15, if not top 10 team nationally to begin the year, and that may go up. Their key strength is that they have four or five great players who combined can cover all subject areas. That will make improving from where they are now easier too, as they can spread out their studying more. From what I've seen I would put them in the top 5 nationally for History Bowl contention as well, along with Bellarmine, Hunter, St. Joseph's, and St. Anselm's. University School of Nashville with National History Bee champ Mark Arildsen returning is also right up there, but I don't know how much they will prepare for it. All the other teams have at least two great history players; having Mark carrying USN on his own is a tall order, though he may be up to it if he continues to focus on improving over his already extremely high level of play.

David MaddenRidgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad

Having jumped from 30th to 18th is a movement in the right direction, Deo Gratias. As a preliminary assessment, of course, it comes with the appropriate caveats (and humour!).Still, my students are looking forward to a re-shaped landscape on the state and national level for the upcoming year.Thanks for the work!

Father Gregory - Vacationing in lovely, 106 degree Austin, TX!

Gregory SchweersCounty of DallasCity of IrvingCistercian Preparatory School TeamThe only Monk on this whole board

Millburn (NJ) is listed twice on the rankings, both at #65 and #97 (once with their PHSAT stat line, and once with their LIFT one).

Also, not trying to seem picky, but is there a reason Ardsley isn't in the rankings when our performance at LIFT would seem to put us solidly in the top 100? If it's a matter of not historically going to tournaments/Nationals, we're going to make every attempt to change that this year.